A Research into the Effect of Augmented Reality-Enhanced Storybook Reading on EFL Learners

Abstract

The era that we live in now brings along new technologies and augmented reality (AR) is one of these innovative technologies. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the integration of AR into educational areas. To date, in the field of language education, the studies focused on mostly the use of AR to teach vocabulary and the effect of AR on learners in a narrow range. However, the effect of AR-enhanced storybooks on tertiary level learners’ English reading comprehension and possible reasons for the before-founded positive effects of AR have still not been comprehensively investigated. Hence, the present study carried out a qualitative study with focus group interviews to get a deeper understanding of the effect of AR-supported storybooks on the learning process of English language learners with the help of their subjective experiences and to obtain students' suggestions regarding the use of AR technology for English learning and reading comprehension. The findings demonstrated that the AR-enhanced storybook increased reading comprehension and English learning, thanks to its use of visual and didactic language, arousing a feeling of wonder, interacting with the story by making the learners a part of the story, appealing to their interest, and increasing their excitement with the help of multisensory elements, and leading them to emphatic thinking and be more enthusiastic to read and learn.